I don’t know if you’ve heard but this months is Women’s History Month. There’s a great trend on twitter with the hashtag #becauseofher. People are tweeting about women who have influenced their lives or the course history.

Gender equality is real problem there is many stereotypes and expectations for both sexes. This causes many problems like self esteem issues,discrimination, unrealistic expectations(I.e the ideal of the perfect women body image) etc… I won’t go into it too much in this post as I have a more detailed post on this issue planned.

The important thing is that it is important for girls of all ages to have positive role models, to let them know they can achieve whatever they want and they deserve the same respect as everyone else does.

And because of this I will be sharing some of my favorite posts from this hashtag every week through October and hopefully give you some inspiration.

*** Go check this last one for a great video of someone discussing the quote above.

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What did you think of this weeks picks? Do you have any stories of a women who has changed your life or of a role model you adore? Let me know in the comments and get involved in the #becauseofher on Twitter!

I mentioned earlier in my first post that I would be doing posts on acts of kindness.

Here is more about that!

Have you ever had someone open the door for you or let you ahead of them in line. It made you smile right? These are simply acts that can bring happiness or smiles really easily. And not only does it make the person receiving the kindness happy but it also makes the person giving the out kindness happy.

So why is it not done very often by everyone. I mean it seems like a win win situation isn’t it?

My thought is that most people are often too much into personal issues and don’t see those opportunities of kindness pass them by. Everyone is guilty of this at one point or another including me. Sometimes I am on the bus texting a friend and don’t realize that there is someone who is struggling to stand in a moving bus right beside me. If I took the time to take in my surroundings I would have seen the opportunity to be kind and offer her or him my seat.

The other main reason I hear from people for not doing acts of kindness is that they are too time consuming or difficult.

So this is where my acts of kindness initiative comes in. Every week I will be doing 2-4 acts of kindness and reporting them on the blog. This is will show that being kind is beneficial to yourself and others and that it doesn’t always need to take a lot of effort There are so many different possibilities for acts of kindness that vary in length and difficulty that there’s something everyone can do. I will also report on how looking for the opportunity to be kind will hopefully make me be more observant of the people and events around be and in the process make me learn new things.

Hopefully these Acts of Kindness posts will encourage you dear readers to join in and start spreading some kindness and happiness of your own.

If you do let me know in the comments or use #PoweredCrowd on twitter

To conclude in the words of a famous talk show host “See you soon and be kind to one another”

Are you wondering why I started this blog? What the blog is about? What is it’s purpose? Well those are a very good questions (You’re all very smart readers I can tell). Let’s jump into it right now!

*** Just so you know this will be a longer post that usual, I really want to give you the full picture of what this blog is all about. If you want to skip the backstory go to paragraph 7. ; )

I have always wanted to help others. The first example of this that I can remember is when I was very young, probably around 10. I read a story in one of those “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books about a child fundraising money to send to people in need in Africa. It inspired me to make posters and try to get some friends involved. I remember having a small clipboard with all kind of notes and plans. Unfortunately it never progressed much more than that. Since then, I did lots of volunteering and other such things but not much beyond that, though that dream to make a difference and create positive change for people suffering in the world was always there.

Last year I was in class at University and someone came in, talking about volunteering experiences abroad to help those in need. I thought to myself, I am in good enough health to go, I have a whole year to fund raise money, I’ve always wanted to do this, so why not now? A year of research, saving money and preparations later I found myself in Cambodia for a most amazing two weeks of volunteering.

Then a week after my return to Canada, I went to work for the whole summer in an all girls summer camp, where girl empowerment was a topic often talked about. Needless to say all this stirred my inner self that has always wanted to do change.

But then University started up again, I felt like my life consisted of work, homework, class and sleeping. I wanted to do something, not sit all day in class! I had made big plans to start making positive change since last year and now I felt like school was a chore. It was really bringing me down. Every time I thought about class or homework I felt anxious. I guess I felt like I had to put things on hold until I finished my studies and that made me sad. I was conflicted, I know how education is a privilege not everyone has and how lucky I am to be in University, but I also knew that I couldn’t wait to graduate and start learning the way I learn best, by doing, by having discussions, by interacting (more on learning styles in another post). I could tell if I didn’t get out of this funk my grades would suffer, BIG time.

Now let’s back up a bit Months ago I heard of this thing called “One Young World” where young leaders from 196 countries who want to make a positive impact gather somewhere in the world for a four day conference. This year it was in my home town. I thought yes! This is what I want to do, it’s perfect! How do I get the chance to participate? Then I saw that you needed to apply and get accepted based on your impact in your community or in other initiatives. I immediately thought, well I haven’t done enough for that and the idea was sadly pushed aside.

Now you might be thinking, well goodness Maya you have wrote us this long story, how does all this come together? This is how it all started clicking into place. First someone I knew got the amazing opportunity to be an observer at the conference. Then I had the biggest low about school work and walked out of my class, that day or a day later I tuned into the opening ceremony for the conference online to see if I could see that person I knew on the podcast and, as I was falling asleep, I got the idea for this blog.

As I started developing my idea, it was like a domino effect. I realized, hey, I might not have a brilliant idea today on how to make a big positive change but what I can do is start something today, start doing my best to help others and bit by bit grow a movement. I also realized that I can do school work and all of that stuff I find hard while pursuing something I’ve wanted to do my entire life, something that makes me happy. (seriously is there a better feeling that doing good for someone and seeing them smile?) The best part is, I have already noticed that starting this blog and project is making me appreciate school more, it’s encouraging me to get my school work done so I can have more time to work on this blog and most of all its making me happier because I am FINALLY!!! doing what I have always wanted to do. I’m not delusional I now this is going to be hard work, lots of ups and downs, but the point is I am starting somewhere.

And so can you, this blog will not only cover my journey to making a positive change but hopefully encourage you to join me in doing some good in this world, to spread some kindness and encourage happiness. You can expect some posts on me doing random acts of kindness, guest posts from people dedicated to positive change, my progress in building a platform to help the most people I can, inspiring initiatives from around the world, ways you can help in your community, and more.

I also want to make this as interactive as I can. Have you had someone be kind to you? Have you done a good deed you think other people can be inspired by? Do you have a cause for positive change that you want to share (gender equality, mental health, the right to clean water, etc..)? Let me know in the comments, tweet it with the hashtag #poweredcrowd and look out for more ways to spread kindness initiatives around the world in the Get Involved page, which will be updated often.

Most things start small but can become big. I am a visual person so I see it like this, imagine taking a handful of snow, you form a ball you look around and see nothing but white, you don’t know where to start you want but know you want to get rid of as much of that white expanse of nothingness as possible so you take your tiny ball and start rolling it, you suddenly see a little patch of happy green grass and as you roll the snow ball gets bigger and starts collecting more and more snow, letting more and more of that green grass shine through and before you know it the ball is so big that a friend comes and helps to push it, and then another friend joins in, and another ,and finally, together, the ball is so big that you’ve cleared the whole white expanse of snow and see the grass.

If we all commit to spreading kindness and being part of a powered crowd dedicated to positive change we can and will create this snowball effect and help change the world. We just need to start somewhere to make that ball and push see how much good be can create.